Follies
by TomFoolery
Summary: Potter’s at it again: if Lily would only just listen, pay attention, or even stop her barrage of insults just long enough to hear him out. But the plan is hatched, the stage is set, and this time, things will go right, right?
1. The Hatched Plan

**Follies  
Chapter One: The Hatched Plan**

_Two little notes: the setting of this story takes place towards the beginning of the Marauders fifth year at Hogwarts. Yes, that means that incident that Harry witnessed with Snape and the underpants hasn't happened yet.  
Secondly, I know I've a horrible person when it comes to updating, but worry not; I actually finished this story before I posted it. For now, it's going to be seven chapters long, though I may go back and do a little bit of editing. If you're in the mood for a long, drawn-out James/Lily fic about the gorgeous Lily Evans and her two slightly less beautiful friends who hook up with Sirius and Remus while leaving Peter out of the picture, this is not the story for you._

"Go away Potter."

Whenever Lily Evans said that, it was enough to make anyone else besides James Potter realize she was serious. The intense look of hatred on her face, coupled with the disgust in her voice and her grip on her wand did the trick every time: except on James Potter.

"But Evans, who's going to walk you to the next class?"

"I've found my way around this castle for five years now, I think I can manage."

"Oh come now, here, let me carry your books," James pleaded, using a well-aimed Summoning Charm to seize her books from under her arm.

"Give them back _Potter_," she spat, raising her wand into a defensive position.

"I try to be a gentleman and this is how she shows her appreciation?" James asked incredulously, turning his eye over to his partner in crime, Sirius Black.

"Shameful," he agreed.

"Give me my bloody books back _now_ before I hex you into next week you slimy little bi-"

"Language, Evans, language. Surely a Hogwarts prefect wouldn't walk around swearing?"

Her face grew from dark to viciously livid.

"Besides, hexing me into next week will make me miss the match against Hufflepuff next week, and we can't have that."

"I hope they beat you and make you sorry you were ever born Potter," she growled. "Now give me back my books and leave me alone."

Sirius and James looked back and forth to one another as though Lily had just committed an obscene breach of proper behavior. She wanted them to lose to Hufflepuffs? It wasn't just inappropriate, it was downright blasphemy.

"I'll give you back your books and send you on your way if you say I'm the best Quidditch player that ever lived," James offered, his eyebrows lifting in interest.

It was James Potter's turn to speak downright profanity. She would never do and he knew that, but either way, he would be victorious. Either by some miracle she would utter the words or she would refuse, which was much more likely, and he would retain custody of her books and walk with her to class. What he hadn't planned for was option number three.

"_Stupefy! Accio books!_"

James was swept backwards and fell straight to the ground and Lily's books sailed out of his grasp back into hers. She knew better than to stay: it was unlikely that he would actually curse her back, but it wasn't worth the headache of sticking around. Her timing wasn't great however, as the exact moment James fell flat on his backside also happened to also be the moment a group of Slytherins, including Severus Snape, happened to be passing by. She stalked down the corridor and made her way to the dungeons, leaving the squeals of laughter and a likely dispute behind her.

She was the first to arrive in Professor Slughorn's classroom. As she sat down, she slammed her books on her desk and rather zealously plopped down in her seat.

"Something wrong Miss Evans?" Slughorn asked. "Oh, did you solve my puzzle that I proposed last time we met?"

"I'm fine, and no, I didn't," she said through gritted teeth as the door opened. The Slytherins filed into the classroom, many still laughing and cracking jokes about the scene they had just witnessed.

She quickly averted her gaze to avoid further humiliation.

"Welcome boys!" Slughorn greeted with a broad smile. "Ah, Severus, did you ever figure out the answer to my riddle last class? If anyone could it would be either you or Miss Evans, and she still asserts that she doesn't know."

"I have Professor. It was _so_ simple I can't believe I didn't realize the answer immediately- it must be a moonstone."

"Very well done Severus! Twenty points to Slytherin!"

Lily had been quite annoyed before, but that pushed her even farther. Professor Slughorn had asked during the last class session what common potions ingredient could also be used in its pure form for scouring a cauldron, and she couldn't think of anything aside from potions or mixtures. It was a blow to her pride that she couldn't propose an answer, and an even bigger blow that the one who _could_ answer the question happened to be the only boy in the entire school who was better than her at Potions.

"Who cleans a bloody cauldron with a moonstone anyway?" Lily scowled, trying her hardest to ignore the smirking look Snape was giving her. It really had been a most obvious answer.

"What's the matter Lily?"

It was Angela Archer.

"Potter's being an annoying git and Snape's being a know-it-all."

"What else is new?"

"Nothing, not a damn thing."

Just before the ring of the bell James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter made it into the classroom, all four boys looked disheveled and James and Sirius seemed particularly moody. The only seats available were directly behind Snape and his fellow Slytherins: something both parties generally tried to avoid at all times but occasionally was inescapable. Lily sighed: putting both groups of boys next to each other was bound to spell more disaster and thusly more disturbances for her education. Angela apparently agreed as she raised her eyebrows at the sight.

She didn't have time to vent any more anger before Professor Slughorn dived right into the day's lecture. It was OWL year, and no one, not even James Potter, doubted that this year would be more difficult than any they'd ever had.

"So, who has studied Love Potions?" Slughorn began excitedly.

It was no surprise when the first two hands to shoot up into the air were those of Lily Evans and Severus Snape. They were slowly followed by Remus Lupin and another Slytherin girl.

"Yes Severus?"

"There are three types of potions which are classified by the Ministry as 'love potions': _Inamorata_, which produces actual sentiments of love, _Convoitise_, which produces effects of extreme lust, and lastly what is known simply as a Love Potion, the most common and easy to produce of the three. It causes the consumer to act erratically and foolishly out of a perceived love for the person that donated material to the potion."

"Very well done Mr. Snape: another ten points to Slytherin."

It was hardly fair. Lily had always known Slughorn's favoritism swayed from day to day based on who had the most answers, and often when it benefited her and Gryffindor house she overlooked it, yet he was clearly favoring Snape this time.

"Well, it's a good thing he knows so much about love potions because it's the only way he'll ever force a girl to like him, the slimy greaseball," James commented smoothly.

"And maybe you should try studying them yourself Potter, because otherwise that Mudblood over there will always hate you, as she points out at every opportunity."

Either Professor Slughorn hadn't heard or didn't care, either way he turned back to the blackboard and began listing notes about each of the potions Snape had mentioned. Lily herself was furious and was only kept out of detention by her friend Angela's attempts to silence her rage.

The lesson went by slowly as they discussed various Ministry laws governing Love Potions and antidotes. As usual, Lily and Angela took strict notes, Snape listened only to offer answers to Slughorn's questions, and Potter and company talked quietly among themselves.

"You know what?" James said suddenly. "It's really not a bad idea…"

"What?" Sirius asked absentmindedly. He was more occupied with quietly and gently snipping off pieces of Snape's long and greasy hair with a pair of gardening shears that he had conjured moments before.

"Will you stop?" James hissed.

"James, shut up," Sirius snapped back, continuing to cut strands of hair from Snape's head.

"I've got a brilliant idea and you're not even listening," James growled.

"Perhaps both of you should listen to the lesson," Remus said darkly, continuing his quest to fill up more notebooks of lecture notes than any other student in Hogwarts history.

"I'm busy," Sirius said, continuing to chop bits off of Snape's mop of greasy hair.

"Will you stop just for once?"

"You stop," Sirius snapped, tossing the ball of hair he had cut off at James.

James shrieked, unaware of the settings, and immediately began to brush Snape's hair from his robes.

"Something wrong Mr. Potter?" Slughorn asked, turning away from his instruction.

The whole class was staring at him now, including Snape and the Slytherins. Sirius had conspicuously concealed the shears beneath his desk.

"Er, there was a spider on my desk," he said weakly.

The Slytherins sniggered and turned back to the lesson.

"Well, the joke's on him," Sirius whispered darkly. "Just wait until he sees the back of his hair."

"Wait until you hear my plan."

"Is it supposed to be brown like that?" James asked, looking from the book to the potion.

"Yes," Remus said, swirling the concoction with a ladle.

Sirius stuck his finger out to touch it but before he could, James slapped it away.

"Don't do that!"

"It had no effect until you add a piece of the person into it," Remus said methodically. "It's essentially harmless."

"But still, I don't want anything contaminating it," he said warily. "I've waited for five years for Evans to like me, and I don't want to have to wait _another_ month for this potion to be ready."

"I can't make it brew any faster James," Remus said, clearly growing agitated. "A basic love potion would have taken about three hours, but no, you wanted her to _really_ love you. _Inamorata_ isn't one of the easiest potions you could have me cooking up for you."

"But you're so good at it Moony," James said with a smile, still clutching the potions book in his hand and gazing down at the solution lovingly.

It was a rainy Friday evening and the four Marauders were in the chamber behind the statue of the One-Eyed Witch brewing the complicated Love Potion that their arch-nemesis had described to them just a month before.

"When is it going to be ready again?"

"Probably on Sunday night," Remus said, rolling his eyes. "I'm not sure."

"How can you not be sure!" James hollered, dropping the book.

"The same way that you're not sure how you're going to get Lily to drink it. Look, the book says the brewing time will be different for each potions master, but it generally takes around a month. I don't know James. The fact is, sure, she only has to drink a drop to fall completely in love with you, but the effects aren't permanent. You've got to get her to keep drinking it, and if you can't it'll probably go back to the way it was before when she-"

"Details!" James exclaimed. "Just details. I've got to take off, I've got Quidditch tomorrow."

"And I have prefect's duties in about twenty minutes but I'm still here brewing your bloody potion," Remus shot back. "Either way, it ought to be fine until tomorrow morning. We'll check it again then. We have only about an hour after it turns a blood red color to add your hair, otherwise it'll be worthless."

"I can watch it for the night," Peter chimed in, eager to help.

"I don't suspect it'll turn tonight. As I said before, we'll check it again in the morning."

A peel of thunder issued from outside and echoed through the boys' ears.

"Ought to be a good game tomorrow eh?" 


	2. Foiled

**

Follies  
Chapter Two: Foiled

**

"It was just like you said Lily," Angela commented sarcastically.

Lily turned and glared at her. It was a dreary Saturday evening and both girls were lounging around in their dorm room snuggled close to a toasty fire.

"I didn't think it would actually happen," said Lily. "How was I supposed to know he was going to drop dead from his broomstick?"

James Potter wasn't exactly dead, but he nearly had been only hours before. It had rained all through the Quidditch match, and just before James could make another amazing goal against the Hufflepuff Keeper, he had been smacked square in the back of the head by a well-aimed bludger. A group of fourth year Slytherin girls had started the rumor that he made it to the Hospital Wing just in time to succumb to his injury, but it was later refuted by the large queue of people crowded around the door to Madame Pomfrey's office.

"I must say, you looked rather horrified when you thought for a few minutes that he really had died," Angela said, a playful grin growing on her face.

"Look," Lily replied flatly, "Potter might be a dolt, an arrogant bighead and a complete and total showoff, but I don't really wish his death, ok?"

"You looked positively guilty, like you personally had killed him," Angela continued.

"Enough already! Besides, I think I'm going getting a cold from standing out in the rain all day, and extreme remorse won't help anything."

"Sometimes don't you just think for half a second that you could date him?" Angela asked.

"No."

"Why not?"

"Do you really have to ask? Do you really want another five hour long speech about what a loser I think the boy is?"

"Well, no, but have you ever stopped for a second to consider that even though he's conceited, bullying, boastful, smart-mouthed, mean, cruel, antagonistic, deceitful, moronic, sadistic-"

"I never said he was sadistic," Lily said, frowning.

"Oh never mind, but don't you think that even though he's a bit cocky sometimes, he's still a funny person with a great sense of humor?"

"No."

"Oh come on Lily-"

"No."

"Maybe if you just let go of your prejudices against him for a few minutes and really thought about it, he might not be so awful."

"Look, if he would quit torturing people and humiliating everyone and hexing everything that comes in his path, maybe I would _talk_ to him but I would _never_ date him. I don't think he could make me love him with the best Entrancing Enchantment he could cast or the strongest Love Potion he could brew."

"What now?"

It was a case of mild panic in the hollow behind the statue of the One-Eyed Witch, induced by the Quidditch captain's unfortunate accident. His potion was ready, yet unfortunately, he was not.

"I don't know," Sirius said, scratching his chin.

"Maybe it's for the better. I mean, this potion is illegal and it's really unethical you know, trying to seduce someone by these means."

"Moony, you're so moralistic."

"I'm right about this too. Its fate you know."

"No, it's just a stroke of bad luck. Lily and James really are good for one another, and even if they're not just the fact that he has her will make him shut up about her."

"I wouldn't count on that," Remus answered enigmatically.

"Well, we just aren't thinking. It's turning redder by the minute and James isn't going to be getting up and running down here any time soon."

"Couldn't we just sneak up to the Hospital Wing and pluck a piece of hair off his head or something?" Peter asked knowingly.

"You saw Pomfrey's face the second we turned up. There's no way she'll let us in, not after the time we charmed that greasemop's toenails into growing longer than a broomstick the last time he was in there," Sirius answered.

"That was _you_, not _us_," Remus replied. "I'm telling you, its better this way."

"You're just not thinking like you usually do Remus," Sirius said whimsically. "Here's what we're going to do. We're going to go through James' laundry and find a hair or something on one of his robes and add it to the potion. That's all we need, right? Just one hair or one toenail or one eyelash?"

Remus' face fell as it did whenever Sirius found the solution to a problem that he'd rather not be caught up in. Peter's face shone like it did whenever something interesting was about to happen. Sirius' face, however, was dead set and determined to put an end to his best friend's lovesick squealing.

"I'm going back to the dormitory to find some of his robes, I'll be back soon," Sirius said as he swept back through the doorway statue. 

He arrived in his dorm room and immediately began hunting, though it appeared as though the house elves had already taken care of the laundry that day. He began to dig through James' trunk and hit pay dirt: a worn set of school robes with several black hairs on them.

"And you're sure these are his?" Remus asked patiently when he returned, out of breath and clutching his chest in pain from the long sprint back from the common room.

"They were James' robes, who else's could they be?"

"Clearly you haven't looked in the mirror lately," Remus noted, gazing at Sirius' head of black hair.

"Look, they're his!" he proclaimed, pulling a few hairs out to compare the two. "His hair is thinner than mine and longer too. They've got to be his."

"Alright then," he said slowly, holding the two hair samples up to the light to gauge any differences. The ones Sirius had brought him _were_ considerably longer and thinner than the ones he had pulled from his own head.

Remus dropped one of the black hairs carefully into the concoction and stood back as it made a violent hissing sound and emitted ruby red smoke. The potion, which only seconds before had been a deep red, almost maroon color had transformed into a crystal clear, runny fluid.

"Is it supposed to look like that?" Sirius asked, looking intently at the potion which could have easily been mistaken for boiling water.

"It's perfect," Remus answered with a note of excitement in his voice. "Absolutely perfect."

"Oh shut up, it's not like you were going to botch it anyway," Sirius said mildly. "You're good at brewing potions and you know it."

"Even though it's morally reprehensible, this is _beyond_ NEWT level material. I've never done anything this complex before and I'm pleased I nailed it on the first try."

"Well, that's good. Now how are you going to get Lily to drink it?"

"What?"

"You know, she's got to drink it for it to-"

"No, what do you mean _me_?"

"Oh come on Moony, you're the only one of the four of us that she'll let near her without a lot of swearing and hexing; it's got to be you."

"No."

"Why not?"

"Why not! I didn't even want to brew it in the first place and I sure as hell _won't_ give it to her!"

"Please Moony?"

_"No."_

"How are you Lily?" Remus asked quietly as he sat down next to her at the Gryffindor House table at breakfast the next morning.

"I'm doing fine I guess," she said, looking all around for any sign of the rest of the Marauders.

"It's just me," he said.

"How's Potter?" she asked stiffly.

"He's fine," he answered with a bit of surprise. "Madame Pomfrey says he'll be out in time for class today."

"Hmmmm," Lily replied and she picked up her fork and began to pick at her meal.

Sirius and Peter strolled up and sat on her opposite side.

"All by yourself this morning Lily?" Sirius asked with a tone of mock concern in his voice.

"Yes, and it was so lovely until you arrived," she growled.

"Look, _Lily_, we've always been square, haven't we?"

"No."

"Why can't you even look at me instead of shoveling food in your mouth?"

Lily shifted her body weight in her seat and turned to face him.

"You want my full attention, fine, but there's nothing you could say to me that I'd want to hear unless it's that you've all dropped out of school and are moving to Brazil tonight, so will you kindly leave me alone and make room for my friend?" she gestured toward Angela who had arrived moments before, seemingly still asleep.

It was all the time Remus had needed. The second she had turned her back he swiftly had slipped a few drops of the potion into Lily's glass of milk and had his hand back out of the way before she could expect anything.

"Ok, fine then," Sirius said with a shrug.

The three boys got up from their seats and left just as she had asked, leaving Lily, and Angela, in wonder.

"That was almost _too_ easy. It's unnatural. I tell him to leave and he _does_," Lily said, the mystical look of bewilderment still present on her face.

She lifted her glass to take a drink just as Angela commented "We've got Transfiguration today. McGonagall threatened a test last time, which of course means there most certainly will be one. Lily? Are you ok?"

The truth was, there was something really wrong. She felt the most peculiar feeling welling up in her chest, like her heart was too big to fit in her body. Her fingers and toes were tingling and there was a soft humming in her ears and she was beginning to feel the most intense emotional pain she had ever felt, like she was badly in love with a person she didn't know.

"Are you ok?" she asked again

"Yeah," she answered breathlessly, taking another gulp of her milk. "I just felt lightheaded for a second. I've just got testing jitters. You know how I get just before a Transfiguration test," Lily replied weakly.

"Yeah," Angela answered. "McGonagall promised it was going to be nasty too, turning bullfrogs into house cats. Last time I just ended up making the frog all hairy."

"We're going to be late," Lily said, taking a few deep breaths.

It was 7:45. Even if they ran they probably wouldn't make it to the classroom on time.

"I'll meet you up there," Lily said quickly, taking a last bite of her food.  
"Ok then," Angela said before swiftly collecting her things and taking off.

Just as Lily was throwing her books in her bag and getting ready to make a run for it, she was passed by a boy with jet black hair and she felt her heart pounding wildly in his chest. She couldn't explain it, but she had the most overwhelming desire to be near him, with him, close to him in any way possible. He wasn't far from her, but she felt like she missed him terribly, as if she hadn't seen him in years. As he walked away, she had the strangest desire to chase after him, as if awful things would happen if they were ever apart.

She was in luck. He stopped to bend down and tie his shoe and as he did she caught the identity of the mysterious boy and gasped.

It was Severus Snape.  



	3. Admission

**Follies  
Chapter Three: Admission**

Lily knew it made no sense: she hadn't ever really felt anything for Severus Snape aside from sorry. But she couldn't explain the beauty she saw in him as he knelt down before her, tying his shoe carefully. The precision of his hands were amazing: he was amazing.

Before she knew it, he was up again and quickly leaving the dining hall, and though she knew not why, she _needed_ to follow him. She'd be late for Transfiguration- no! She couldn't miss class. She had to go to class.

She made up her mind and very sternly began walking in the direction of her classroom, knowing that she was doing what she needed to but feeling as if she was making the worst mistake of her life. She felt as though her heart was breaking.

She arrived late to Professor McGonagall's class and got five points docked from Gryffindor House, any other day she would have been devastated but on that day it was an afterthought when she thought of the distance between herself and Severus.

"Lily? Are you sure you're ok?" Angela whispered as McGonagall began passing out the written portion of their test.

"Er, yeah, I just, um, I've got things on my mind," she murmured back.

"I wonder how Lily's doing over there?" Sirius wondered aloud.

Remus buried his face in his hands. The amount of guilt he felt for bewitching such a wonderful girl was beginning to take effect. If only he hadn't just gone along with his three friends like he always had and said something she might not look as if she were in extreme agony right now. But it was too late to think of what ifs.

"At least it's not permanent," he thought darkly to himself.

According to the book, the effects wouldn't last more than a week, but still, a lot could happen in a week. He worried what James would do once released from the Hospital Wing to find the girl he'd lusted over and dreamed about for going on five years was completely infatuated with him. It made him shudder.

"She looks like she's either going to throw up or go mad over there," Sirius snickered.

"Shut up Padfoot."

"What's it to you?"

"Don't talk about her that way,"

"You feel guilty don't you?"

"You know I do."

"Then why'd you do it?"

Remus had no answer. It was hardly fair that his friend should ask him such a question when he had no explanation to give, so he turned his eye back to his desk just in time for Professor McGonagall to place a test paper on it and give him a reproving look. He knew she was probably upset that he had been talking moments before but he couldn't help but think the shrewd woman knew what he had done.

At the front of the classroom, Lily was having an impossible time focusing on her test. It was becoming ridiculous and she knew it. She just couldn't shake anything about him out of her mind. She had to yank herself back to reality every so often but it still wouldn't help, for when she looked down to her test she read things like: what is the proper wand technique for handling Severus Snape?

Most of the class had finished their exam and she hadn't even made it to question twelve yet and was beginning to panic. Why couldn't she pay attention? She gritted her teeth and forced herself to answer the questions as best she could but was horrified to go back over it and discover that she had written his name as several of the answers.

"Miss Evans? Are you finished yet? We're waiting on you," Professor McGonagall queried, looking at the clock impatiently.

She felt close to tears. She knew almost without a doubt that she was going to get extremely low marks for a test that she had studied for and was at a loss to explain why. She turned her paper over to the professor and buried her face in her hands.

"Lily?" Angela asked with a tone of concern in her voice. "It'll be ok. There's no way you failed- I mean, we studied for that test for hours a few nights ago and-"

"No, it's not that," Lily said quietly, choking back tears of distress.

They were halfway through the practical portion of the test when the bell rang, alerting the end of the class and Lily felt elated for a moment but then a flash of panic set in as soon as she realized where she was off to next: Potions class with Severus.

Just as they were leaving the classroom, James came round the corner. Most days she would have had a snide remark ready for him but on that particular day she couldn't be bothered: she slinked right past him and headed straight for the dungeons. He paused to watch her skip down the stairs two at a time, wondering why she chose that day of all days to ignore him.

"Is the potion ready yet?" James asked excitedly when he caught up to his three friends.

"It was ready yesterday," answered Sirius. "We took some hairs from one of your robes since Pomfrey wouldn't let us in and slipped it to her in her morning glass of milk."

"Brilliant! What would I do without you?" exclaimed James.

Then it dawned on him. She hadn't looked at him just moments before, didn't speak a word; she hadn't even paused or faltered. She probably just hadn't seen him. He was eager to get down to Professor Slughorn's class to see her, but the others weren't quite as impatient, so though he was very much annoyed by the delay, he hung back in the hallway with his best friends.

Lily, on the other hand, was quickly making her way down to the classroom, unsure of what she would do when she saw _him_, but enthusiastic to do so nonetheless. What _would_ she say? How would she act? What would everyone think? What would _he_ think?

"Lily! Slow down!"

Angela was trailing paces behind her, trying her hardest to keep up underneath a burden of schoolbooks, parchment, and quills.

"Come on, we're going to be late!" Lily lied, quickening her pace.

"Lily!" Angela tripped over the last stair to the dungeons and everything she had been holding few in five different directions. "Lily!"

It was as though her friend hadn't even heard her.

When Lily arrived at Professor Slughorn's class, there wasn't a soul in the room, not even the professor himself. Lily looked around anxiously and began to move towards her usual seat but reconsidered. Maybe she could sit by him? No, that wouldn't really do as he always sat with the other Slytherins; she would sit where she had always sat. She began to consider how best to say 'hello' to him and almost started practicing when he walked in the room: alone.

Her heart felt like a pair of birds' wings, flapping excitedly around in her chest and she felt as though she would be unable to control her emotions. She felt like singing, dancing, screaming, crying, and laughing all at once. She had no idea why she had never seen it before, but she knew it better than anything now. She was in love with him.

It hardly seemed reciprocated though, for he sat down in his usual seat without even acknowledging her to be in the room. She needed to say something fast, before other students began filing in for the day's lecture.

"Um, hi, uh, Severus," Lily said, feeling suddenly stupider than she ever had in her life.

He looked at her as if she had lobsters crawling out of her ears and looked away without returning her greeting. She could feel her face growing vibrantly red and could feel hot tears welling up in her eyes.

"How are you?" she asked again, more boldly than she though possible of herself at that moment.

He looked back at her again, and this time, directly at her, and simply replied 'Fine.'

"That's good, me too," Lily answered immediately- almost too immediately.

He gave her a sort of twisted fake smile, reminiscent of a smirk and nodded his head a few times and then began looking around in his bookbag. It's not as though the reaction he gave her was surprising, given that she had never spoken more than a few words to him since they'd both attended Hogwarts, but his indifference to her still stung her like a grave wound.

"Why are you staring at me?" he asked abruptly.

Lily hadn't realized it, but she _had_ been staring.

"I- nothing- I just-"

"You think I'm funny do you?"

He was angry. He had misinterpreted her loving gaze for a rude stare, and she was about to be completely rejected for it. He wouldn't dare be so audacious with Potter and the gang but reproaching Lily Evans was nothing. Though she had never really bothered him, she was a Gryffindor nonetheless. He rose from his chair, pulling out his wand and began yelling.

"You and Potter and all of his stupid followers! What the hell is wrong with you?! It's like-"

"Nothing!" Lily interrupted, salty tears flowing down her face at last. "I just like you is all!" she blurted out.

She hadn't meant to say it just like that, but she had. The intense look of confusion on his face rendered her speechless, and she could sense that he felt like he was being set up for a prank. Instead of continuing his assault, he fell back into his chair, looking at her curiously.

She turned to run out of the room and she realized at once the timing of her confession couldn't have been more badly played out. James, Sirius, Remus, Peter, Angela, and much of the rest of the class had been waiting just outside the door watching the scene unfold. She cut through the crowd, sobbing hysterically and trying to ignore the laughter following her. There were several people however who had not found it amusing. Angela simply stared off after her best friend, running wildly down the dungeon hallway, feeling an urge to chase after her. Sirius, Remus, and Peter were all horrified as Lily's admission of affection for Snape was setting in and they were realizing the gravity of the mistake they had all made.

James Potter, simply put, looked murderous. 


	4. From Bad to Worse

**Follies  
Chapter Four: From Bad to Worse**

"What?! Who?! Why?! What were you thinking?!" James words were coming from his mouth like short and violent hisses, and his face appeared to be swelling with apoplectic rage.

Sirius, Peter, and Remus looked at each other in turn, horrified and still somewhat unsure of what exactly they had done. Many students were still laughing and it was having a rather negative effect on James' already unstable mood. Angela ran off down the corridor after her friend, and James slung his bag over his should and stomped off in the opposite direction, deeper down into the dungeons. The remaining Marauders were unsure of what to do: they knew how James could be when in such a furious state, so following him or leaving him to himself were equally dangerous.

"We can't just let him go? What if he does something stupid?" Sirius argued.

"Stupider than what he's already done?" Remus replied.

"Hey, you had your hand in this business too," he answered coolly.

"I'm not skiving off class to chase after a prat who's behaving like a small child today!" he yelled.

Many of the students turned to look at him, with the notable exception of Snape. Since Lily's confession he had sat in his seat, head down and looking into his book bag, a definite look of wonder about his face, mingled with slight pain, confusion, and embarrassment.

Sirius scowled and took off after James, leaving Peter and Remus standing just inside the classroom.

"Should we?" Peter asked nervously.

"I suppose we should," he answered, tightly clenching his teeth. 

Down and down deeper into the dungeons they went, chasing after their friend. Finally, the dungeons dead-ended and they had him trapped.

"Get the hell away from me!"

"Prongs! Calm down!"

"Calm down?!" James roared. "Calm down?! I'm in the Hospital Wing for a day and you go and botch the one thing I had going for me!"

"Well, in all fairness, you never really had Lily going for you, so we really didn't _do_ anything!" Sirius bellowed back.

"_Snape?!_ She's- she likes- _Snape_?! What?! _How_?!"

"Stop yelling Prongs, it's not going to fix anything and you're spitting on me," Sirius snapped.

Slowly, he sat down on the floor against the wall and put his head in his hands.

"Prongs-James, we were just trying-"

"I can't believe this," he said quietly, interrupting Remus. .

"Prongs, I don't know how it happened," Sirius answered. "We thought we were helping you. The potion turned and you were locked up in the Hospital. We took some of your robes out of your trunk and put them in the potion. How were we supposed to know anything was wrong?"

"Robes, what robes?"

"They were in your trunk at the foot of your bed, you know, just a-"

"Sirius, those were the robes I was wearing that day you threw greasball's hair all over me," James said, his anger visibly flaring back up.

"Well, gee, we just sort of supposed you had- I don't know- _washed your clothes since then_," Sirius replied sarcastically.

James said nothing but stared at Sirius in fury.

"Oh come on Prongs, what the hell were you saving them for?"

"I dunno, I just thought his hair would be useful someday, for something, I dunno," he answered.

He was clearly frustrated and the other three boys could really sense it. An awkward pause fell between them for some moments before anyone could speak again.

"How long does the potion last?"

They all turned to Remus. 

"I don't really remember. I'm almost certain the book said one week. It's up in the dormitory."

"One week?! Is there an antidote?!"

"Not one that can be brewed in under a week. _Immorata_ is a level six standard potion," he replied matter-of-factly.

"And that means what in English?"

"It means that the antidote is brewed in the exact reverse of the potion, meaning that the antidote would take about a month to brew too."

"So we just have to wait it out?" James moaned.

"Er, well, I suppose so."

"A week?" Sirius asked again.

"Um, the book wasn't exactly clear really. There was a chart with some tables relating how the proportions of-"

"Moony, shut up," Sirius interrupted. "Let's get the book."

"Lily! Lily please!"

"Just go away, leave me alone," she wailed from the other side of the bathroom door.

Angela had finally caught up with Lily in the bathroom on the third floor nest to the statue of Boris the Bewildered.

"Lily, let me in!"

"No!"

"Lily, what's going on with you lately?"

"I don't know! Go away! I just want to be alone right now."

"You know I can't do that. I never knew you liked Snape," she called, trying to sound a bit supportive. "I mean, when you think about it, the two of you are both really smart and ambitious, and sure, he's kind of weird and all but-"

"He's not weird!" Lily roared, finally bursting the door open. "He's not weird," she insisted again, tears pouring down her face.

"You're completely obsessed with him, aren't you?"

The wailing continued without answer.

"You know Lily, if I didn't know any better I'd say you've been bewitched. You've never acted this way before, especially not about _Snape_."

"His name is Severus," she sniffed.

"Really Lily, have you ever even looked at him twice before this morning?"

"It's just because I've been so wrapped up in myself, I never took the time to notice how intelligent, how sophisticated, how gentle and soft he really is."

"Right."

"You just can't see it like I see it. I don't know why I never saw it before, I mean, I've been here for like five years now and I've always been so focused on competing with him that I never stopped to think about the person underneath," she sighed.

"Listen to yourself. You sound like an idiot."

Fresh, incoherent babbling tears dribbled down Lily's face. 

"Lily, face it, you've been messed with. I don't know who or how, but someone has done something to you."

"Exactly, _who_? It wasn't James and his band of morons because as much as they really like to make my life hell, they all hate Severus too much to do this and it wasn't Severus either because you saw the way- the way he looked at me."

The memory of her earlier humiliation and rejection was pushing her close to hysterics. She sat down in the middle of the bathroom floor and continued sobbing. Angela looked at her best friend and felt immensely sorry, but even though she was acting like a lovesick puppy, she did have a point: no one would have done this on purpose. But Lily had always been so calm and level-headed. It just made no sense.

"Lily, let's go back to class, come on," Angela requested, extending her hand to help her off the floor.

Lily blew her nose and wiped her face on a bit of spare toilet paper and laid down on the floor.

"I can't, I just want to be alone," she replied, choking through more tears. 

"You're being completely irrational. You can't skip classes just because of some boy. This isn't like you!"

"Just let me be crazy for a while, please. I can't go back to class if _he's_ there. He _hates_ me," she cried.

"So you're just going to blow off Potions and Herbology lessons for the rest of the year just so you can avoid a guy stupid enough to not want you?"

"Yes."

"_Lily!_ Come on, this is ridiculous. Get off the floor, it's disgusting. Get off the floor and let's go back to class before we miss the whole bloody lesson!" Angela replied firmly, trying to suppress her annoyance.

Lily curled up in a ball and refused to answer.

"Come on, you're acting so childish! Let's go to-"

"Class, I know. You go on without me, please Angela. Just let me stay here."

"Lily?"

"Please go."

"Are you going to be ok?"

"Maybe."

"I don't want to go if you're going to do something to yourself," said Angela softly.

"Please just go, I'll catch up with you later."

"Ok then," she said. "Classes are over in about forty-five minutes. Do you want me to come back here for you?"

"If you want," Lily answered miserably.

"Ok, I'll see you in a bit. You really should go to the Hospital Wing, just in case something really did happen to you, you know?"

"The only thing that happened to me is that my heart has been shattered and left in pieces on the floor, trampled on and smashed in a doorjamb, run over by a bus and then picked over by stray dogs."

"You're so dramatic," Angela joked as she slung her bag over her shoulder and left.

About fifteen minutes had passed since she had departed and Lily still hadn't budged from her spot on the bathroom floor. Her piece of toilet paper had long ago become entirely saturated with tears and snot, but she didn't care. She knew Angela was right, she was being foolish and her sudden attraction made no sense, but she couldn't shake the notion that there really wasn't anything foul about it. Her affection seemed so natural.

Maybe it was just because she had never really _liked_ a boy. There had always been the ones that tried to catch her gaze in the corridors, or the ones she glanced at in classes because they were a bit too attractive for their own good, but she hadn't ever really liked anyone.

The more she tried to think about it, the more twisted her logic became until she had worked herself up again. She got up from the floor to get herself some more tissue when the door swung open and Professor McGonagall walked in.

"Miss Evans? Do you care to explain why you're not in class?"

"I, erm, wasn't feeling well," she answered, blowing her nose and beginning to feel that her teacher wasn't going to be very understanding.

"Why aren't you in the Hospital Wing?"

"Well, I'm not exactly sick, I'm just, I-"

"Do you care to explain?" McGonagall asked.

"Not really?" Lily answered nervously, biting back more tears.

"Then I'm afraid I'll see you in detention this evening."

She had never been in detention before. Lily plummeted to somewhere beneath rock bottom and tears, some of the most real and deserved she had cried that day, began making their way down her cheeks.

"Where's the effing book Moony?!"

"Maybe if you weren't such a slob we'd be able to find it _Prongs_," he growled menacingly.

"Maybe if you'd stop botching up potions we wouldn't have to find the bloody book in the first place."

"You're lucky I hadn't handed it back over to Madame Pomfrey yet. I had to really sweet talk Slughorn to get him to sign off on the note to get it from the Restricted Section. I doubt that old bird would let me have it again without arousing suspicion."

"It's here, I've got it," Sirius said, whipping through the pages.

"What does it say?" James asked nervously.

"I don't know, it's like it's in a different language. I mean, who uses terms like 'indefinite retention of emotion displays'? I mean, really?"

"Give me that," he said, snatching it from Sirius' grip.

"You're on the wrong page you idiot. See, here. It lasts for approximately a quarter moon cycle from the time of administration. So really it's about seven days."

"Let me see it," James demanded.

He skimmed the page quickly and let out a sigh of relief.

"So what are we going to do for a week until she gets back to normal?" Sirius asked.

"Well, there's really not much we _can_ do I guess."

"Hang on, wait a minute," James said, holding out his hands to silence the other three.

They looked over at him expectantly, wondering what his complaint would be this time.

"This isn't for _Immorata_. It's for some potion to remove cheek dimples. Who the hell would want to get rid of dimples for a week?" he asked aloud, clearly distracted.

"What are you talking about?" Remus asked. "Its page 163, I remember."

"Yeah, this is page 163, but the brewing instructions are back here on page 159. Look, the pages are stuck together."

"What?" asked Remus, Sirius, and Peter in unison. 

"Let me see it Prongs," Remus asked, taking the book and pulling the stuck pages apart.

After about a minute of reading, his face darkened intensely. 

"What, what does it say?" James asked, panicked.

"It's permanent, or at least it is until the antidote is administered. The longer she goes without an antidote, the more lasting the effects will be."


	5. Setbacks and Surprises

**Follies  
Chapter Five: Setbacks and Surprises**

Her detention really could have been a lot worse; however, thankfully Professor McGonagall lacked creativity in the punishment department. Writing lines was quite dull, and her hand was growing tired. The only sound in the room came from the scratching of her quill and her professor's intermittent coughs and throat clearings. 

The silence bothered her. Though her surroundings were peaceful, her mind most certainly was not. It was all she could do to prevent herself from thinking about Snape. Regardless of the humiliation she felt, she couldn't also help but think about how much she really did care about him. She knew it was silly to feel so passionately about a boy she barely knew, but the more she thought of him, the more she felt she knew him.

_I must not refuse to attend class. I must not refuse to attend class. I must not refuse to attend class…_

Over and over again she wrote, feeling sorrier for herself by the minute. She felt horrible for her earlier rejection, childish over how she handled it, and reprehensible for how she had treated her friend. She hadn't seen Angela since she had left her in the loo a few hours earlier.

She thought on what Angie had said about her more than likely being bewitched. She hadn't ever been in love either by her own will or by enchantment, so she really couldn't say for sure if it was true, but it seemed so far fetched. Who would want her to be in love with Severus Snape?

Herself, that was who. The more she thought about it, the more she was convinced that the only thing keeping her entranced by Severus was herself. She couldn't explain why, but she felt crazy about him all of a sudden, but that was ok.

She considered how she could get his attention and cringed. She probably had already done that, but more than likely he thought she was mad. She wondered if he hated her. It was true, she had never really been unkind to him, but they had competed fiercely since their first year for the top spot in their year. There were a few Ravenclaws and Remus Lupin, but no one really ever could top the two of them.

Perhaps that was why she liked him so much. He was intelligent, like her, competitive, ambitious, determined to thrive, private, handsome, powerful-

"Miss Evans, your lines?"

She looked over at her teacher and realized she had stopped writing about ten minutes earlier.

"Oh, I'm so sorry Professor, I've, er, had a lot on my mind lately."

"How many lines have you done so far out of the two hundred?"

"About sixty," she sighed, looking down at the parchment and believing she would never get done.

"It's very nearly seven o'clock. I don't wish to be here until midnight."

"Yes Professor McGonagall," she moaned, gripping the quill harder and scribbling faster.

She couldn't imagine how James and Sirius did them so often. They each had a detention or two every week. In a way she felt a bit abused that _she_ should get a detention for being caught crying in a bathroom during class. After all, she had a damn near perfect record and it was the very first time she had ever missed a lesson. But she couldn't deny that it was fair. McGonagall was the fairest and most just teacher in the entire school, possibly in the school's entire history, and she couldn't refuse to give her a detention just because she was Lily Evans. Rules were rules and she could appreciate that. She scrawled on.

There was a knock at the door and Lily glanced over to see who it was and her heart skipped a beat.

"Mr. Snape, you've come for that paper I suppose?"

"Yes Professor, thank you," he mumbled, not looking up from the ground.

Lily's heart was thumping wildly around in her chest, and when McGonagall got up from her desk to go into her office after whatever paper he needed, she thought it would beat its way out. They were alone together again for the second time that day, and again, Lily was unsure of what to do or say. Clearly he was in the same situation.

"Listen, I'm sorry," she said quietly.

"What?"

"I'm, I- uh, I'm sorry," she repeated sheepishly.

"Why?" he asked sulkily. 

"For what I said earlier."

"Oh."

"Well, no, I'm not sorry that I like you, that isn't what I meant, I meant, well, you know."

She felt like she was drowning and he still wasn't looking at her. McGonagall was rummaging around in her office and would probably reappear at any moment, but Lily didn't care.

"I'm sorry- I-"

"It's fine," he hissed.

"Please don't hate me."

He turned and gave her a strange look and McGonagall emerged from her office.

"I have Thorogood's essay on multi-level transfigurations," she announced proudly. "Be sure that you get that back to me. It's no coincidence that the library doesn't have a copy; it's an unusual paper and I wouldn't lend it to just any student, so have that back in my possession by the end of the week."

"Thank you," he answered, giving her a fake smile and quickly slinking out of the room.

Lily felt the need to cry again but was fighting it back She hated the way unrequited love felt: it was sort of like being a rain cloud. More than embarrassing herself a second time that day, she had been contemplating how fair she supposed her teacher to be and she went and handed out an interesting essay to a student with the remark that she would only do it in 'special cases.'

She turned her eyes back to her parchment. She still had nearly a hundred lines to go.

_I must not refuse to attend class. I must not refuse to attend class. I must not refuse to attend class…_

"What do you mean we have to wait to start making an antidote?!"

"We're lacking key ingredients," Remus answered darkly.

"Like what? We'll get them! We can send an owl to Mr. Smethwort and he can probably have whatever we need to us by tomorrow night. He's an old friend of my family and if we tossed in an extra galleon we might even have it tomorrow afternoon and-"

"Prongs, it's not that easy."

"What? What do we need? Just tell me and you'll get it."

"Some of Snape's hair for one."

"You didn't save the rest of it?!"

"No, once we were done with your robes we tossed them in the laundry pile," Peter answered quickly, eager for a chance to talk.

"Why would you do something so stupid?!"

"Like wash your clothes?" Sirius asked incredulously.

James rolled his eyes and sat down next to the cauldron and put his face in his hands.

"Look, Prongs, it'll be ok, we'll get this all straightened out and Lily will be back to normal before you know it," Sirius reassured.

"No, it's more than that. Maybe I don't even want Lily back to normal. I mean, she hated me before."

"So you want her to be head over heels in love with some greasy git that tries to hex you any chance he gets?"

"Well, no, but- I don't know what I want."

"Well, regardless of what you want, we should try to do what's right by Lily," Remus said smartly. "The longer we let her go, the more permanent the effect of the potion is."

"Yeah, we know, you keep saying that," Sirius groaned.

"I just want to make things right," he replied nervously.

"Look, if you didn't want to brew the potion in the first place, you shouldn't have, we didn't make you," Sirius growled.

Remus was silenced. James felt a tad guilty for the things he pressured his friend into doing, but it wasn't really the time for reparations and apologies. It was time for action.

"If you can get the ingredients, I should be able to start the potion sometime before Saturday," he said in a voice barely more audible than a whisper.

"Saturday?" James asked desperately.

"I've got plans on Friday," he replied.

"Plans!? What sort of plans could possibly be more important?" Sirius shouted.

"I'm not exactly looking _forward_ to it, since you asked," he retorted snidely.

"Oh, well, sorry," he responded quickly. "But the fact is, we don't have a lot of time to waste."

"I understand this Sirius," Remus countered angrily. "I understand more than you."

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Have you stopped to think about what would happen if anyone found out about this? This potion is highly illegal. If we get caught we could end up in front of the Wizemgamot or possibly in Azkaban."

"Well, it's not like this is the first school rule we've ever broken, or law for that matter," Peter chimed.

"Right," Sirius retorted in annoyance.

The boys sat in silence for a little while, each angry for a different reason. Finally, James stood and began to walk out of the chamber.

"Moony, just get me a list of what you need and you'll have it," he said.

Lily's hand had the worst cramp and she felt as though she would never pick up a quill again. She almost laughed at the idea. She had two essays due this week plus a Potions exam to study for. That's when it hit her.

Potions! She had missed that lesson's lecture entirely! She checked her watch: 9:15. If she hurried she could make it down to the dungeons in time to catch the end of Slughorn's evening party. She felt so angry at herself, and began to rush towards the stairs in her hurry to the dungeons when she heard a noise. She continued her quick pace but then heard it again. It almost sounded like whistling, and it was coming from around the corner of a giant statue of a giant a few meters away.

"It must be students in the corridors after curfew," she thought to herself.

She was rarely in a vindictive mood, but after all she had been through that day, she felt the urge to dish out some punishment. She stormed over to the giant statue.

"I know you're back there, you can come out now, you've been caught," she called.

A lanky figure emerged from the shadows and she gasped. It was Snape.

Immediately she felt foolish and silly and all of the day's humiliations and pains rushed back to her. Her face began to feel extraordinarily hot and she was torn between running away in shame and seizing him in a passionate embrace. The silence that passed between them for some moments was the most awkward she had ever felt.

She mustered the courage and began to turn to walk away. It hurt so badly, but it was the right thing to do.

"Hey, Mud- I mean, Evans, Lily, Lily Evans, um, well, you know, I just-" he faltered, clearly unaware of how to handle the situation, or even assess what sort of situation he had just gotten himself into.

She didn't say anything, but could sense a sort of panic welling up inside of her, ready to cause her tears again. She wanted to be away from him before the waterworks turned themselves on again, but his speaking to her almost seemed to put her in a trance. His attention to her left her glued to the spot, so she did the best she could to fight down her rising emotions.

"Are you _serious_?" he asked at last.

"Serious?" her voice cracked.

"About what you said to me. Are you serious?"

"Yeah," she mumbled quickly.

"W-Why?"

"I just- I don't- know."

Another silence was growing and the uncomfortable situation was becoming worse.

"Why aren't you at Slughorn's party tonight?" he asked.

"Why aren't _you_?" she replied.

"I had something else I had to do. Why were you with McGonagall?"

"I had detention," she answered bitterly.

He raised his eyebrows in disbelief but said nothing.

"Yeah, I got detention for skipping Potions this afternoon," she added quietly.

"Oh."

More distressing silence radiated from the pair of them. Lily's heart was racing madly, as was Snape's. She couldn't believe he was talking to her, he couldn't believe she liked him, and neither understood what that meant for them.

"Well, where are you going now?" he asked.

"I was going down to Slughorn's; not for the party, but for the assignments I missed today."

"I have them, if you want them," he said nervously.

"That would be great!" she answered enthusiastically.

"Well, they're down in my common room, do you want to come get them or something?"

Lily was so thrilled she couldn't speak, and even if she could her brain wasn't functioning properly enough to form an answer.

"I mean, if you don't want to tonight, that's fine-"

"No, I'd love to!"

"Are you sure?" he inquired nervously.

"Of course. Just lead the way."

Lily smiled, unbelieving the way in which her luck had changed. Snape gulped, unsure of how he would explain Lily's presence at the Slytherin Common Room, what her intentions were, and what the possibility of being with a "Mudblood" might mean. He turned and looked at her, and slowly, he was beginning to see in her what she saw in him, and he too smiled.


End file.
